CO2 mitigation opportunities in China

Over the past thirty years China has focused on urbanization and economic growth through rapid development and modernization of its manufacturing capability. Much of this growth was achieved though massive adoption of coal based power generation with industry and manufacturing accounting for over 70% of all electricity consumption. Although the use of coal and other hydrocarbons have successfully fueled China into an era of prosperity and global recognition, it has come at a cost to the environment and quality of life. Significant efforts to reduce coal based generation emissions have recently been achieved through the development and adoption of world leading clean coal technologies developed by China’s coal industry and backed by government initiatives. Although these new technologies are competitive with natural gas based generation emission standards, CO2 from coal based generation remains an issue and its reduction is the focus of current policy and research efforts. These efforts can broadly be reduced into two categories. The first, includes a national strategy to reduce CO2 emission by implementing increased amounts of hydro and renewable generation technologies, such as wind and solar, onto the grid. The development of energy storage to address the intermittency of renewables along with the adoption of distributed resources will significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in China. The second category involves a strategy based on the capture of CO2 for sequestration, a near term solution, and a longer term solution based on conversion and reutilization of CO2 for high valued products and processes. NICE, the central R&D institute of Shenhua Group, has successfully executed the first full-ranged CCS project in China, from CO2 capture, to transporting, to injection and storage. The primary goal of the study was to determine the feasibility to safely store CO2 and 300,000 tonnes of CO2 had been injected as of the end of 2015. The site is currently under continuously monitoring for leakage and safety. This presentation will focus on the ongoing and future research and technology development efforts for CO2 mitigation strategies at NICE that will lead to significant reductions of CO2 emissions in China